The goal of this program is to strengthen the infrastructure for substance abuse research linked to the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. The collaborative will address the impact of drugs and the societal response to drugs on women and their children to provide a fuller understanding of the link between substance abuse, criminal justice, and women, in accordance with the agenda set forth in Healthy People 2000. The specific aims of the collaboration are: (1) Develop a community-based, multidisciplinary substance abuse research program focused on the confluence of substance abuse, criminal justice, and women; (2) Provide an organizational focus which will support multi-disciplinary teams pairing senior faculty, junior faculty, and research assistants in pilot research efforts in the core area, leading to funded R01/R03 proposals for substance abuse research projects; (3) Increase active collaboration with Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), BRASS/HRDI, and other substance abuse providers to enhance the generation of practitioner-useful research, consistent with the mission of the Jane Addams College of Social Work; (4) Promote culturally competent and practice-useful substance abuse research through a Minority Researcher Development Program and a Community Scholar Program; (5) Utilize an Advisory Panel consisting of providers, consumers, and senior researchers to provide conceptual guidance and specific expertise, critique research proposals, and identify applications for research; and, (6) Support professional development plans, including multidisciplinary research seminars, conferences, technical assistance, and broad exposure to substance abuse research culture in order to prepare social work faculty to become fully collaborative and independent substance abuse researchers, and make pragmatic and distinguished contributions to the substance abuse field. Three pilot projects will support mentoring of faculty by senior substance abuse researchers and serve as platforms for fully developed research proposals.